You can watch the Sting & Edin Karamazov concert in Milan online from December 20 here.

Here is a first hand account of the event from Sting.com member Roger Puplett...

My latest leg of this year's Sting related travels, took me to the city of Milan, situated on the plains of the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. A thriving and bustling industrial region, home to Italy's major commercial and financial quarters.

It is also a location full of contrasts. On one level, some of the industrial region has more in common with Berlin, including an ancient tram system and the odd canal dotted about the place. But it is the area around the "Duomo" (Milan's impressive Cathedral) that is the focal point of most tourists' travels to the city.

Milan's historical district was of particular interest to me as it contains some of the most esteemed buildings and attractions in the whole of the city.

Of course, this close to Christmas you cannot go to Milan and not be over whelmed by the amount of shops and world-renowned fashions on display in the region. A place where shopping takes on a whole new meaning, both in money terms and in the shear elegance stakes!

It always amazes me that wherever I travel I am always asked by complete strangers' directions to various places? Milan was no exception, whether I was looking particularly trendy is a matter of some debate? The fact people were asking for directions in Italian meant they either thought I was Italian, or more convincingly, I knew where I was going? Geographically speaking, I found the church much easier to locate than finding the nightclub in Berlin.

I had an inkling even before I reached the venue that this concert was going to be a very special one, given the location and the style of music we were about to enjoy.

Santa Maria delle Grazie is on of Milan's must see attractions, a world heritage site and is famous for housing the mural of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper". The church is a testament to sensational Italian architecture and cultural influences, put in this context you could not be in a better location to hear Sting and Edin play music from "Songs from the Labyrinth", which has now achieved Gold status in Italy.

After arriving at the church (after a swiftly consuming a glass of lovely chilled Pinot Grigo and a Panini in a bar across the road) we were shown to our seats (By some of the prettiest ushers I have ever met!)

I felt tempted to go and sit in the wrong place just so I could be shown to my seat again? I really thought this level of beauty and glamour was only reserved for places like Le Sporting Club in Monaco?

"Bellissimo", (One of the few words of Italian I know) summed up the proceedings, there was so much beauty around (On all Levels!) that you felt immediately drawn towards admiring the church architecture and how exquisitely the church had been decorated for the occasion.

The stage was set in front of the main altar, behind which many candles were gently flickering away, adding to the picturesque ambience of the occasion and giving us a sense that Christmas day was not far away.

What a beautiful site, using the church for this event was also putting Dowland's music firmly into a historical context and timeframe. Although staging a concert like this in the grounds of a medieval castle would also have produced the same sumptuous desired effect.

Curiously, my mind drifts for a moment, thinking that John Dowland was not the only Englishman during the Renaissance period to use the Lute to convey his emotions.

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Renaissance poet, before Dowland's time (1503-1542) is often cited as being the first person to introduce the sonnet into the English language from its natural Italian beginnings.

The sonnet with its characteristic final rhyming couplets, in many ways can be seen as the first chapter in the evolution of the song writing process, which has transpired into the modern pop song format that we recognise it today?

He even wrote several Odes specifically mentioning the Lute, "Blame not my Lute!" and "My lute awake!" being the most famous ones. Whether Sir Thomas Wyatt was as melancholy as Dowland is up for debate, but he was definitely a bitter lyricist.

These Odes were written to help him bid farewell to a lady who had spurned his advances. Sound familiar?

Even today, this theme is alive and well in popular music all around the globe. I do not know if John Dowland was familiar with Sir Thomas Wyatt's work or whether this had a bearing or influence on Dowland's music? No doubt, academics specialising in the Renaissance period know the full story?

It was hard to gauge the capacity of the church but there were probably 300 people seated with another 300 people standing on either side of the main aisle.

Before Sting came on, a Presenter introduced the evening's proceedings in Italian. I believe he was giving an explanation about the works of John Dowland and context of the music we were about to hear.

Sorry my Italian is not up to much, but I seem to remember the presenter mentioning something about his wife being in the audience but what this had to do with what he was explaining is anybody's guess? I am sure the Italian fan club members present will be able to help me out here?

In fact the only foreign language I can manage is French, although I joke that Sting singing "Hungary for you" was a turning point in my linguistic education and was partly responsible for me being able to pronounce any French at all!

The introductions now over, Sting and Edin Karamazov are enthusiastically welcomed to the stage by the audience.

Sting is looking incredibly smart and dapper (Why can't I look that smart, I wondered?) and after a short pause Sting begins to recite the first letter extract to Sir Robert Cecil before starting the first musical number," Flow my tears."

The delivery was immaculate; the intensity was of jaw dropping proportions. I think everybody was so stunned by the quality of the performance that nobody clapped after it, total silence. So riveting was this moment that I was almost in tears myself, the shear beauty and intensity of emotion I felt during the performance was so incredible I find it hard to translate the emotion into words.

If any of the video cameras were concentrating on doing cutaway shots of the crowd at this particular moment, a look of amazement would surely be clearly evident on my face. What I call the "wow factor", how did they manage to do that?

The way the lighting design had been arranged could not have been more perfect. Colours ranged from Green, blue, purple, red backlighting the rear of the church emphasizing the stunning architecture and domed roof. A lighting change after each song was both subtle and in total sympathy with the music.

For visual atmosphere and impact the concert was comparable to watching a Son et lumière with Sting and Edin providing the soundtrack.

Given the location and design of the Santa Maria delle Grazie, the sound was the most challenging and technically difficult out of all the venues played so far, to set up for the sound crew. (Because of the nature of the roof, the sound quickly travelled quite literally upwards to the gods in the doomed roof.)

This posed its own unique set of sound design problems when you want to project sounds in this environment outwards to an audience rather than upwards.

The space has what is known in technical terms as a high Reverberation time (the amount of time required for a sound field in a space to decay 60dB). One way to compensate for this is to play at a slightly faster tempo.

Needless to say the sound crew did an amazing job in this respect, optimising the acoustical design of the church and the sound system in order to preserve the musical acoustics for both the sound of the lutes and Sting's vocals.

It is also worth noting that during the quieter moments of the concert you could also hear and feel the movement of the trams travelling past the outside of the church. (Which you may not be aware of in any future web broadcast of part of this concert.)

Ask anybody involved with the sound and everybody is in total agreement that the sound design was the best of all the concerts performed so far.

"Stile Antico" (the classical singers from England) seemed to have a bigger role to play in the concert on the songs they were doing harmonies on.

This was highlighted in an invigorating and rousing version of "Can She Excuse My Wrongs". The vocalists' voices were faultless and when at full volume, the empathy between their harmonies and Sting's were in total unison (These harmonies also became louder throughout the song) which gloriously filled the whole of the church.

By the end of the song the audience were quick to show their appreciation, one of many highlights in the concert.

The musical partnership between Sting and Edin when they are both playing the lute on duets like "La Rossignol" is both intensely serious, but also playful to keep Sting on his toes?

I think Edin likes playing little musical jokes with Sting, especially when he plays the lute fast, and then goes off in a slightly different direction. Only for Sting to appear to play catch up, with Edin waiting to hold claim to the glory of playing the last note with the timing of a master.

Playing the Lute for Sting is labour of love that requires all his concentration, he looks much more relaxed once he finishes playing, relieved in the knowledge that he has not made any mistakes.

I am convinced that playing the lute uses a different part of the brain than say the bass and with all those strings, is incredibly hard to master. Again, how does Sting do it? Again, I am truly amazed.

Sting looks at his most relaxed and his voice shone on the fastest version of "Come Again" I have heard to date and on "Fine Knacks for Ladies" which was sung with so much ease and conviction that Sting was clearly enjoying the moment and lapping up the atmosphere of the occasion.

Edin played a seamless set, no problems with any strings breaking like during "Fields of Gold" in Berlin. There was a lovely comic moment when Edin was tuning his lute, when Sting clearly wanted to start the next song.

I forget which song (That will teach me to write this section after the office Christmas party!) It was near the end of the set. I am sure tuning a lute is a long hard and essentially difficult process, but it was the only time I remember Edin tuning his Lute during the whole performance.

In fact, I believe the majority of the audience were not expecting Sting to perform any of his own compositions on the Lute. It was the privileged fan club members who knew what was coming next?

If people seemed too reserved at the start of the concert, by the time Sting played "Fields of Gold" the cheers and the clapping started to flow and reverberate around this idyllic setting in full force.

The rendition here of this song, is even more poignant than the version on the special edition of the album, a real treat. A track worthy of a full commercial (Single/DVD) release date, sometime soon?

During Robert Johnson's "Hellhound on my Trail", Edin seemed to extend his sense of playing with humour by holding the lute in an almost "air guitar" pose which I thought was most amusing.

Whether many people in the audience understood Sting's pun on Robert Johnson was hard to tell? I am sure some people were a bit bemused at why this blues song was even in the set list?

But Sting's rendition keeps everybody happy, although the "a-w-u-l..s"(I'm trying to be phonetic here and failing miserably! ) at the end of the song seemed strangely odd in this church setting? Just imagine Sting singing at the end of "Moon over Bourbon Street." to get the picture.

If that wasn't enough, the newly stripped down (Lute) version of "Message in a Bottle" that was to follow was truly inspirational.

I was first to my feet in praise for this rendition at the end of the song. Sting must have noticed my beaming face like a cat that had just eaten a saucer of cream or in my case, the whole bowl!

Like with previous concerts, Sting finished with an encore and a rousing version of "Fine Knacks for Ladies" and sadly for us this marked the end of the night's musical entertainment.

To put the concert in a historical context, a quote from one of Sir Thomas Wyatt's Ode's sums up some of my feelings very well. The "Lute is bound to give such tunes as pleaseth me." (From "Blame not my lute!" by Sir Thomas Wyatt)

Such pleasure was had by all, and already the start of 2007 is already shaping up to be another incredible year for Sting, with more concerts announced. Dowland's music will be heard in many more beautiful venues around Europe.

Thank you to Sting, Edin and Stile Antico for the exceptional evening of music.

A big thank you to Dave, Wendy and Tina for all their help and hard work, as well as to all of Sting's management, crew and to Deutsche Grammophon for making this event possible in such a perfect setting.

I look forward to being able to go to more concerts in the New Year; it also wraps up an incredible Sting related year for me, which would not have been possible without the Fan club. I thank you all!

RECENT STORIES

Dec 15, 2006

Enjoy three new live tracks from Sting and Edin Karamazov's performance - 'Message In A Bottle', 'Fields Of Gold' and Blues Legend Robert Johnson's 'Hellhound On My Trail' available exclusively on iTunes. This exciting release showcases both the magic and intimacy of the performance and members can preview the tracks here...